SiteScope User's Guide

Working with Monitor Groups

This section introduces you to working with SiteScope monitor groups including instruction for creating, editing, and deleting groups.

This section describes:

About Editing Monitors and Groups

All SiteScope monitors must belong to a group which acts as a container for the monitors and subgroups. The relationship between a monitor and the group it belongs to is important. The following are several things to know and keep in mind when editing SiteScope groups and working with monitors.

  • SiteScope alert have a many-to-many relationship with monitors and groups. A single alert definition can be associated to a single monitor, a group of monitors, multiple groups, or even all groups on a SiteScope installation. This is helpful in planning an alerting strategy and in managing alerts.
  • Moving a monitor from one group a different group will disrupt the report history for that monitor. Report history for the moved monitor will be reset when the monitor is moved. The previously collected data remains in the SiteScope logs.
  • Moving a monitor from one group into another group can disrupt alerting for that monitor if the new group has a different alert assigned to it than the original group.
  • Deleting a monitor discontinues monitoring of the subject system and reports. As with moving monitors, the previously collected data remains available for reports until log files are deleted.

About Group Actions

Group actions are available as a set of links below each group detail table. These actions are displayed under the Group Actions heading and provide functions that apply to the entire group. Two types of actions are included:

  • Actions applied to each monitor in the group
  • Actions that change settings for the group

The following sections describe these group actions and how to work with group settings.

Creating a SiteScope Group

Use the following steps to create a group container that will be displayed on the SiteScope main page.

To create a new top level group

  1. Start or open SiteScope. The SiteScope main page is displayed.
  2. Click the Create group link on the SiteScope Panel. The Add Group form is displayed.
  3. Enter the name of the group in the Group Name text box.

    Note: You may only use alphanumeric characters, dashes (-), underscores (_), and periods (.) in the name.

  4. Optionally, enter a additional description text for the group in the Advanced Options section. The description will be displayed above the group name and group detail table for the group. The Description box can include HTML markup tags such as <HR>, <BR>, as well as font control tags such as <H2>.
  5. Optionally, use the Depends On selection box to select a monitor on which this group should be dependent. You can use this option to enable or disable the alerting controlled by monitors you place in this group based on the status of another monitor outside the group.
  6. Click the Add Group button. The group detail page for this group is displayed.

Once you have created a top level group you can add the subgroups and monitors that you want to be in the group. Clicking on the group name link in the SiteScope panel will take you to the group detail page for that group. The group detail page gives you an overview of the latest status and readings for all the monitors defined in that group.

Index

Creating a Subgroup

Use the following steps to create a subgroup within another group:

To create a subgroup within a group:

  1. From the SiteScope panel or within an existing Group Detail page, click the name of the group to which you want to add a subgroup.
  2. Click the Subgroup link under the Group Detail table. The Add Group form is displayed.
  3. Enter the name of the group in the Group Name text box. You may only use alphanumeric characters, dashes (-), underscores (_), and periods (.) in the name. Name length is not restricted.
  4. Select the other options in the Advanced Options section as for creating a group.
  5. Click the Add Group button. The group detail page for this group is displayed.

Once you have created the subgroup you can add the monitors that you want to be a part of this group. Once you have added monitors to a group, clicking on the group name link in the Group Detail page of the parent group will take you to the group detail page.

Index

Disabling and Enabling the Monitors or Alerts for Monitors in a Group

SiteScope allows you to disable all of the monitors in a group as well as any subgroups in that group. You can disable monitors manually or specify a time period after which the monitors will be automatically re-enabled. This feature is useful for times when you know that the monitors will be in error, such as during routine maintenance or a prolonged outage. Disabling monitors will prevent alerts from being generated for the those monitors. See also: Monitor Scheduling.

To disable the monitors in a group:

  1. Click the group's name on the SiteScope Panel to open the group's detail page. The group detail page is displayed.
  2. Click the Disable all the monitors or alerts for monitors in this group link. The disable screen is displayed.
  3. The disable screen contains 3 disable choices. Choose only one.
    • Disable temporarily for the next n minutes/hours/days is used to immediately disable until a certain period of time. Enter a time period that the monitors should remain disabled. Leaving This item blank will permanently disable the monitors until they are manually re-enabled. Select minutes, hours or days as applicable.
    • Disable on a one-time schedule from t to t is used to schedule a temporary disable for a time in the future. Enter a start time and an end time in the following format:
      12:00 8/2/2001
    • Undo one-time schedule is used to undo a temporary disable schedule that has been set. A list of any monitors which are currently scheduled appears just above the Disable button.
    • In the lower section of the page you can specify a time for the choice of Disable alerts for the next n minutes/hours/days. This will disable alerting for the selected monitor for the time period you select.
  4. Enter an optional Disable Description in the box indicated. This description will appear as part of the monitor status in the group detail page.
  5. Click the Disable Monitor or Disable Alerts to complete the action.
  6. The updated group detail page for this group will appear showing if the monitors and subgroups in the group are currently disabled. There will be no indication of whether a disable is scheduled in the future. (This information is only available as mentioned above -- it appears above the Disable button on the disable page.)
  7. To enable the monitors, click the Enable all the monitors in this group link.

You can have SiteScope temporarily disable alerts for monitors in a group or subgroups in a group.

To temporarily disable alerts for monitors in a group:

  1. Click the group's name on the SiteScope Panel to open the group's detail page. The group detail page is displayed.
  2. Click the Disable all the monitors or alerts for monitors in this group link. The disable screen is displayed.
  3. Enter a time period that the alerts for these monitors should remain disabled.
  4. The updated group detail page for this group will appear showing the monitors and subgroups in the group are disabled and will be indicated by an additional monitor status icon.
  5. Alerts will be disabled for the period of time specified, though the monitor will continue to run and collect data.

To enable the monitors, click the Enable all the monitors in this group link

Index

Refreshing Monitors in the Group

Monitors are set to run at time intervals that you select. This may vary from running several times each minute to only running once a day. You can refresh SiteScope monitor readings manually regardless of when the monitors are set to run. When you refresh a group, all of the monitors and subgroups that belong to that group are run and the status reading is updated. Use the following steps to refresh group:

To refresh the monitors in a group:

  1. Click the group's name on the SiteScope Panel to open the group detail page. The detail page is displayed.
  2. Click the Refresh all the monitors in this group" link. A confirmation screen is displayed.
  3. Click the Refresh button to complete the action. A refresh progress page is displayed.
  4. Click the Return to [groupname] link to return to the group detail page.

Index

Reordering the Display Order of Monitors within a Group

You can use the Reorder Monitors feature to change the order that monitors are displayed in the group page. Use the following steps to reorder monitors:

To change the display order of monitors in a group:

  1. click the Reorder the monitors in this group" link on the Group Detail page.

  2. Complete the items on the SiteScope Reorder Monitor Form as described below. The reorder options are described as follows:

    Reorder Option

    Description

    By Position

    Select the new position that you want each monitor to have. For example, put the number 1 next the monitor that should appear first on the Group Detail page.

    Sort

    Click the Reorder Alphabetically button to order the monitors in this group alphabetically.
  3. Click either the Reorder by Position or the Reorder Alphabetically button to complete the action.

Index

Deleting a Group

When you delete a group, all of the monitors and subgroups that belong to that group are also deleted. Use the following steps to delete a group:

To delete a group

  1. Click the group's name on the SiteScope Panel to open the group's detail page. The detail page is displayed.
  2. Click the Delete this group link. A confirmation message is displayed.
  3. Click the Delete [group name] button to delete the group. The SiteScope Panel or the group detail page for the parent of the deleted group is displayed.

Index

Working with Group Settings

The Edit Group page is used to add or update several settings for SiteScope monitor groups. While these settings apply directly to the group, they may impact the run or alert characteristics of the monitors within the group.

Renaming a Group

Use the following steps to rename an existing group.

To rename an existing group:

  1. Click the group's name on the SiteScope Panel to open the group's detail page. The detail page is displayed.
  2. Click the Edit Group Properties link. The Edit Group form is displayed.
  3. Enter the new name for the group in the Group Name text box.
  4. Click the Update Group button. The updated group detail page for this group is displayed.

Setting Group Dependencies

Group dependencies allow you to create groups of monitors which will only run as long as another monitor in another group is reporting either an OK or Error status. If you choose to have SiteScope dependent upon another monitor returning an OK status and that monitor goes into error, the monitors in this group will not run until the depended upon monitor begins to show an OK status again. For example, you could create a group of monitors for a specific machine which will only run if a Ping monitor for that machine returns an OK status. If the ping ever fails, the monitors in this group will not run, preventing you from being flooded with error messages.

If you choose to have this group dependent upon another monitor being in error, the monitors in the group will not become enabled unless the dependency control monitor returns an error status.

To set group dependencies:

  1. Click the group's name on the SiteScope Panel to open the group's detail page. The detail page is displayed.
  2. Click the Edit Group Properties link. The Edit Group page is displayed.
  3. Under Advanced Options find the Depends on text box choose the name of the monitor upon which this group should be dependent from the drop-down list.
  4. Click the Update Group button. The updated group detail page for this group is displayed.

Index

Using a Group Refresh Schedule

A group can be assigned a refresh schedule to synchronize the running of all the monitors in that group. Once the group refresh schedule is defined, all the monitors in that group will stop running according to their own schedule (the Update every setting), and only run by the group refresh schedule. Other properties of the monitor will continue to function as before. For example, if an individual monitor within the group is disabled, it will remain disabled when the group is scheduled to run.

Note: Group refresh schedules are not applied to sub groups that may be contained by the group.

Once the group schedule is set to 0, it will stop functioning, and the monitors schedule will take control. Once a group schedule is set, any operation on the group (e.g. adding a new monitor, refreshing a monitor, updating a monitor) will cause a refresh on all the group.

To set a refresh schedule for a group:

  1. Click the group's name on the SiteScope Panel to open the group's detail page. The detail page is displayed.
  2. Click the Edit Group Properties link. The Edit Group page is displayed.
  3. Under Advanced Options find the Refresh Group every text box. Enter a time value in the first text box. Use the drop-down list to select a time increment for the refresh schedule.

    Note: The group schedule has to be set to a time value of at least 60 seconds or more. If it is set to a value less than 60 seconds, the group refresh schedule will not be activated.

  4. Click the Update Group button. The updated group detail page for this group is displayed.

Index

image
Copyright © 2004 Mercury Interactive Corporation.
All rights reserved.

Documentation comments or suggestions?
Please send feedback to documentation@merc-int.com